This is one of the hardest things I’ve ever written. It may be the
most difficult, so far. Please read it
to the end, and please continue to PRAY.
We have been asking for prayer
for the Democratic Republic of Congo for years.
The DRC is not a “stable” country. The DRC is not an easy place to live
or minister. And yet, this is where God
sent us. This is where our church family
is. This is where we minister and pour our hearts into others. This is our
home. This is where our kids are growing
up. This is where we have seen God do
absolutely amazing things.
When we moved to the interior, we
told you that the majority of the conflicts in this country were happening in
the east of the DRC. It was true. There has been fighting on the eastern
boarder for decades. It is nowhere near
us, and did not affect us or our ministry.
We live in an area of fishermen and farmers. They don’t want conflict,
they just want to be able to feed their families. We live in a very peaceful
area.
Things have changed. There is now a major conflict in the neighboring
province to our east. Where we live in
Dibaya-Lubwe, we are on the east side of our province, which makes this
conflict a bit close for comfort. The
militia are violent and have been targeting foreigners as well as people that
are not from their tribe. Many have been
killed.
“Where no counsel is, the
people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.” Proverbs 11:14
We have sought the advice of
many. We have prayed. Wow, have we
prayed!
While the immigration officers,
both local and provincial, have assured us that “this conflict will not be
allowed to cross into our province”, we are unsure they can deliver on that
promise. There are many details that are
difficult to explain. Briefly, if the militia does cross the border on the main
road, we will be cut off and unable to drive out; if they cross the border on
the river, we will be right in their path. Either way would be undesirable, for
sure.
In addition to the problems with
our neighbors to the east, Kinshasa to our west is also in disorder. Today, marches were scheduled in protest
against the current president. Many are calling for people to
take up arms against the current administration and defend their country’s
constitution, which has an article obliging them to fight against anyone trying
to become a dictator.
The DRC seems to be falling apart
all around us; literally surrounding us with conflicts on every side. If things were different… If we didn’t have
children… If a lot of things… we may not
be writing this letter.
One of our many questions has
been: When is it time to leave? After
much prayer, we decided to follow Paul’s example while in Thessalonica in Acts
chapter 17. When “the brethren” told Paul
and Silas to leave, they did. Until yesterday, the church leaders here said it
was best to stay. We stayed. Yesterday
they said, “It’s time to go.” Our sending church in America has given us the
same counsel.
This is not an emergency! We do not feel in imminent danger! However,
we do feel that if we wait too long, it may be too late to leave safely. We are
looking at leaving here next weekend, or the beginning of next week. This will give time for the things in
Kinshasa to calm down a bit. We will be monitoring the situation there so we can
hit Kinshasa during a good window to enter the city.
Where do we go? This has been
another of our many questions. At this
point, we will be going to Kinshasa. We have a place to stay. We will be with other Americans who will be asking
the same questions that we are. We will
continue to seek a multitude of counsel. Proverbs 11:14.
“Evacuation” seems like such an
ugly word. It seems so permanent and so urgent. For now, let’s not use that
word. We are not leaving in the dead-of-night, or suddenly without time to pack
or prepare. Dibaya has been so very peaceful and we expect our trip to be
peaceful as well. We fully intend to
return. Prayerfully, this is not
good-bye to Dibaya or the ministry in which we have labored and love.
Yes, please pray!
~Pray for us to have wisdom and a
whole lot of grace.
~Pray for us, as we pack up our
recently unpacked house. Not knowing the answers to so many questions makes it
hard to know what to pack, and how to pack.
~Please pray for our kids as they
are uprooted yet again. Most of the time
we have several weeks, if not months, to prepare for a transition. This one is coming upon us quickly, and with
a lot of uncertainty. Things tend to get
a bit tense, especially between siblings, while we are in the middle of big
transitions. This one is HUGE. We just
now got into a routine and the kids have been doing really well in school. This will effectively demolish our routine,
and put us even further behind in school. (Furlough is not home school
friendly; neither is transition.)
~Pray for the Bible Institute.
Things are going surprisingly well in this ministry right now, and it will be
so difficult to leave when things seem to finally be moving in the right
direction. Sparky is hoping to finish teaching the Baptist Doctrines class on
Friday. He has recorded some of the
other classes on MP3 and will be leaving SD cards so at least those classes can
be listened to in our absence.
~Pray for the classroom
building. Thanks to generous gifts
toward this project, we are going to be able to leave some finances and here to
finish rebuilding the classroom. Please
pray for the men working on it to work safely, but also for them to do a good
job without us here as “quality control”.
~Please pray for Beautiful Feet
Baptist Church. Pastor Emmanuel is doing
a fine job in preaching and leading this congregation. The church has some good
deacons to help him continue to lead well and help point the church in the
right direction. They have grown so much
in the last 5+ years, but they still have a long way to go. Please pray they
will continue to follow Biblical principles!
~Pray for us while we are in
Kinshasa, that we will profit from this time to do some administration and
other ministries that will be a benefit those in Kinshasa as well as here in
Dibaya.
~Pray that we will be able to
return home soon, but always in God’s will and timing.
We have been in close
communication with our sending church, and will continue to be in contact with
them as much as possible. If you have any questions or concerns regarding our
whereabouts or what decisions we are making, please feel free to contact them
at notusfirstbaptist@gmail.com.
We cannot guarantee we will be reachable, but please also feel free to contact
us via email. Please know that we will be in touch as much as we can.
Thank you for your continued
support during this turbulent time in our ministry. We can’t tell you enough how important it is
to us to have a solid support team behind us.
You are valuable! Thank you.
In His service,
The Clancy Family
Time in Kinshasa